Rear brake dragging

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_RIDER_

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It's happened a couple times now where I let off the gas and am taken off guard when I realize my rear brake is dragging on me. I pump it a few times, it lets up, then I try braking again and there's no pressure. Try again and all is good. Do i have a leak or something? needs to get fixed cuz it's not very safe when I cause the cars behind me to slam on their brakes when i'm not even touching mine.
 
The loss of pressure is probably due to over heating of the fluid if the brake is binding ,, (known as brake fade) . I would start at the rear caliper remove it from the mounting plate & check the piston is free by pushing it back into the body there will be a small amount of resistance , then check the slider pins/bolts and bushes that mount the caliper are free also check the pads are not siezed in their mounts , you will also need to change the brake fluid once you have fixed the problem , if all the above are ok it could be a master cylinder issue !!
 
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_RIDER_ said:
It's happened a couple times now where I let off the gas and am taken off guard when I realize my rear brake is dragging on me. I pump it a few times, it lets up, then I try braking again and there's no pressure. Try again and all is good. Do i have a leak or something? needs to get fixed cuz it's not very safe when I cause the cars behind me to slam on their brakes when i'm not even touching mine.
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I bought my FZ from a friend of mine because he was using it as a loaner bike for others in my group. While another friend was riding it, about a week before I bought it, he adjusted the pedal height for the rear brake, to make it feel more like his sport bike that was getting fixed at the time. When he did this, the brake started hanging up. When I brought the FZ home, I started looking at it, and it was actually "binding" the pedal with the adjustment bolt on the plunger.

Basically the bolt was sticking down too far, and when the pedal was depressed, the bolt was making contact with the ear of the pedal putting just enough pressure on it to prevent it from releasing and allowing the pedal to return. Worth looking into.
 
My guess would be your pads are getting thin and the piston is out too far, causing it to not retract all the way. This is very common on cars and sleds.
I would check how thick new pads and compare them to yours. On sleds the pads are still like 1/2" thick and once they get to about 1/4" they start binding.
 
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What Sebastian said. Also, cruddy old brake fluid might be the culprit. Pulling the brakes and checking for piston movement is fairly easy for this ham-fisted guy.
 
You might as well give the caliper a good overhaul whilst your there.
I've had a caliper (albeit on my FZS600) 'drag' on me due to the wiper ring seal disintegrating. It smeared itself between the piston and the cylinder wall, locking the piston in a given position, and making the rear brake inoperable. I think it was with the previous owner using the wrong grease on the piston, and rotting the rubber. :dontknow:

Might be worth a look!
 
I was planning on changing the fluid anyway, i'll take a look at the caliper when I do that, check the pads etc. Might go with some stainless steel brake lines too. Probably not gonna rebuild it, bike only has 3500 miles. Thanks for all the input!
 
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